USA TODAY International Edition
Fueling passion from Pittsburgh
Ganassi’s vast motor sports teams are city’s fourth major franchise
PITTSBURGH – The ceremonial first pitch of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ home opener flew off the mound and solidly into the catcher’s mitt. It wasn’t a strike, but it also wasn’t a weak pitch that bounced on the ground halfway to the plate, as so many of these tosses by celebrities and semi-celebrities do. Chip Ganassi made sure of that. Chosen by the Pirates for the significant honor of opening their home season April 2, Ganassi, a native and lifetime resident of the Pittsburgh area, didn’t leave behind his competitive nature, framed by a career in auto racing, when he crossed over to another sport.
With the help of longtime friend Dave Klasnick, a former baseball coach, Ganassi worked for days on his pitching form, then arrived early at the park on game day to warm up on a practice mound under the stands at PNC Park.
Some might consider this overkill, but it wouldn’t surprise friends of Ganassi, whose drive to succeed across several decades in auto racing has made him one of the winningest team owners in the sport. That success also has made Ganassi celebrated in his hometown, which tends to invest its sports attention in the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins.
“Pittsburgh is probably not a NASCAR town or an IndyCar town,” Pirates team owner Bob Nuttig said. “But many of us know Chip for being Chip and being engaged. I think there’s a good recognition here of the depth of success he’s had. He’s such a passionate and competitive individual. He’s had tremendous success in every challenge he’s tackled.”
Ganassi’s racing portfolio includes wins in the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, 24 Hours of Le Mans and 12 Hours of Sebring. His teams have won 11 Verizon IndyCar Series championships and seven sports car titles. The NASCAR Cup championship is the only bare spot on his résumé. His teams have scored 201 victories.
Although Ganassi’s NASCAR team is based near Charlotte and his IndyCar team is housed in Indianapolis, his office is near Pittsburgh and he lives in Fox Chapel, a Pittsburgh suburb. He grew up in the steel mill town of Monessen, south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River, and was deeply influenced by the bluecollar work ethic tied to the work-hard, play-hard dynamic endemic to mill villages.
As a kid, Ganassi was a fan of the Pittsburgh pro sports teams and remembers going to baseball games with his father, Floyd, at old Forbes Field.
“Pittsburgh was like the center of the Earth for me,” Ganassi said. “That’s how big it was for me. I always pictured myself running one of the big corporations downtown.”
The detour along that path occurred when Ganassi’s father, who owned an asphalt paving business, failed to receive payment for work on a go-cart track. Instead, the Ganassi family wound up with several go-carts.
“If you have one go-cart when you’re a kid, that’s fun,” Ganassi said. “If you have three go-carts, that’s a major racing series. It was for my cousins and me. I grew up with carts, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, ATVs. I sort of had this fossil-fuel-fired youth.”
Ganassi raced dirt bikes locally but moved into race cars at 18. While attending Duquesne University (where he received a degree in finance), he raced sports cars and Formula Fords before moving up to Indy cars.
Ganassi graduated from Duquesne, turned 23 and qualified for the Indianapolis 500 all in a 10-day period in 1982. He had his sights set on major-league driving, but that career goal was derailed, largely because of critical injuries he suffered in a brutal crash in an IndyCar race at Michigan International Speedway in 1984. He drove a few races after recovering but soon directed his energy toward building a winning race team for other drivers.
In the crash at the Michigan track, Ganassi’s open-cockpit car flipped and hit a guard rail driver-side first at high speed. Friends remember Chip’s father keeping the helmet — with a mark showing the crash impact — in his office as a constant reminder that it saved the driver’s life.
Ganassi could live virtually anywhere and could be closer to his team operations with a residence in Charlotte or Indianapolis, but Pittsburgh is and always has been home.
He runs the show from an office outside town, the phone his link to his teams, sponsors, series officials and the private-plane pilots he keeps busy hopscotching across the country. On the counter behind his desk is a schedule that weaves together the races in the various series in which Ganassi teams compete. The most difficult thing for Ganassi often is deciding which race to make and which to miss.
Ganassi, 59, is unusual in the racing team ownership ranks in that, unlike many other successful owners, racing is his only business. He doesn’t own car dealerships, restaurants or wineries. He races.
“That’s never been my method of operation,” he said. “Just last week I had a guy come after me about the car dealership business, but that’s a lot of footwork for not much money.
“I think it’s an advantage for me. My partners and sponsors know this is all I have. My employees know that. This is a real business. It has to work for me. It’s not a sideline. It’s the line.”
Kyle Larson, who races for Ganassi’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team, is on Ganassi’s phone list, but their business calls are short, Larson said.
“I bet I could go back and look at all my phone calls with Chip, and they probably last anywhere from a minute to two minutes,” Larson said. “He is very quick with our conversations, and I think that is cool. He is a very unique person and different from any other person I’ve ever met in my life, and I enjoy being around him.”
Many people don’t think of sports as a business or as work, Ganassi said.
“I work seven days a week,” he said. “Nobody can keep up with me. I burn out pilots. And they like to fly. I’m on the phone, trying to raise money, strengthen the teams, keep the right mix of people. I work with the car companies. I stay abreast of the rules.”
And he does it from Pittsburgh, where some describe him as the city’s fourth “major league team.”
“Chip is a Pittsburgh kid who races in places all around the world,” Klasnick said. “People here are kind of awestruck that he’s a Pittsburgh kid. He travels everywhere, but then on Sunday night he’s back in the hometown. People love that about him. That’s who he is.”